Keakealani Posted:

This is not a black and white issue. It is not a matter of either having an unfettered laissez-faire democracy or a dictatorship. The government espoused by the founding fathers is a representative republic, and believing that our country is an absolute democracy is misguided at best.

A dictatorship or monarchy is incomparable to a republic because the dictator or monarch is not elected by the people. The reason we elect our representatives is because we believe that they will use their best judgement to legislate based on the will of the people but also the betterment of the nation. Sometimes those two goals are somewhat contradictory; but in general the two can be reconciled in such a way that it most directly benefits both options. We could not have a functioning system if we abolished the representative system so fundamental for our democracy. If we had no president, who would be the commander-in-chief in a time of war? Surely we shouldn’t have to vote on every military move American troops make – not only would that be painfully slow (probably fatally slow, in fact), but the majority of Americans really have no idea what the best strategic move would be in any given situation. We clearly need people to be our leaders so that we don’t have to put everything to a vote which might end up causing catastrophe in the country.

Well said. Nothing is a black and white issue. And while I do believe in limiting government power I am aware that a pure democracy would never work in the real world.